Episode 502 : YA Books for Boys

Hello! Thank you for joining us on Reading With Libraries! We’re so glad you could be here to enjoy our book group podcast.

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we support libraries of all types: schools, publics, academics, and special libraries and archives. We started this podcast to provide useful information for library people doing Reader’s Advisory work. There are so many books out there that it’s tough to be an expert on all of them. So we pick a new genre each week to chat about and hopefully provide you with some insight into what may be an unfamiliar genre!

This week we’re discussing YA books that help teen boys to develop a love of reading. 

We’ll share book titles and ideas to encourage them to form strong reading habits while still in school. 

We are so pleased to welcome back a Guest Host with firsthand experience with this issue – Bethany Kauffman, media specialist from Rogers High School!

Beverages:

Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages, and we each came prepared with our own drink to enjoy while we talk about our books. Today we’ll be enjoying some teen-friendly drinks with easy recipes!

Homemade chocolate milk 

  • 6 to 8 ounces of milk (any type)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
  • Gather the ingredients.
  • Pour the milk into the glass and slowly add cocoa powder while blending with an immersion blender or spoon. An immersion blender works best because it reduces clumping of the cocoa powder.
  • Add powdered sugar until well blended.
  • Serve immediately or cover and place in the refrigerator until ready to drink.

Hiball Energy Sparkling Energy Water

  • A good alternative to Red Bull or Monster energy drinks!
  • Comes in wild Berry, grapefruit, lemon lime and peach flavors
  • Light and refreshing flavored sparkling water with 160 mg of natural caffeine per serving
  • Sugar Free drinks Made with organic ginseng, organic Guarana and four B vitamins
  • From their website: Hiball combines the refreshment of sparkling water with light and lasting energy from natural ingredients to make a tasty and thirst-quenching energy beverage.

Pineapple Twist Juice

  • The sweet and juicy profile of pineapple gives it a dominating nature that makes it ideal for masking the strong flavors of vegetables. 
  • Start with half a cup of freshly cut pineapple chunks and add one medium green apple along with half a cucumber, half a bunch of cilantro and six leaves of kale with stems and blend until ready to drink.

Genre Discussion:

This article from EdSurge shares a 2016 study that suggests a third of US teens haven’t read a book for pleasure in the past year. Some tips the article suggests include: 

  • Be a good role model. Limit your own screen time and let teens see you reading
  • Don’t force teens to read, or punish them if they don’t
  • Help teens find things to read that are interesting to them! Graphic novels, nonfiction on a subject they’re interested in, even fanfiction online.

This article from ReadWriteThink.org has some great suggestions for encouraging teens to read. The article points out that with so many other distractions available, helping teens choose reading over other activities can be a challenge, especially if they see reading as an unpleasant school-related activity.

Some of the tips they give include: 

  • Think of reading as a social activity – many teens have book-related social media and can connect with authors online too 
  • Read together – recommend a book to each other, then when you are finished reading it get together and discuss
  • Watch the movie/TV show after reading the book
  • Attend a book event! An author reading or event like Teen Lit Con or The Loft’s Wordplay can be a good motivator to read the author’s work beforehand. 

Suggested Reading Resources:

Our Book Discussion

We have our beverages, we are familiar with this week’s genre, let’s get to the book discussion! 

As always, all the links below go to Amazon.com for more information about the books we discussed. If you click on a link, and buy anything – a book, a car – Amazon will give us a small percentage of their profits. We funnel that into things like scholarships for our members. So thanks in advance!!

Conclusion:

Thank you so much for joining us for this discussion about YA books to encourage boys to read! 

And a special thanks to Guest Host Bethany, who is also a CMLE Board Member, for being willing to come chat with us and share recommendations!

Join us next Thursday with another genre, more guest hosts for our book group, and more books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries – which is always interesting! – subscribe to our podcast Linking Our Libraries.

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here on Thursday!